To my fallen Dawgs who didn’t know any better, and to the
women we hurt. And the parents we made stay up all night
crying and praying for us. Without you, I know I would not
have made it and I would have been lost.

Preface

It’s like a story in the Bible. You know, Joseph. He had a dream that
couldn’t be put to death, rather he was being put in a pit or in a
prison. He would eventually rise to feed the multitudes because without
a vision, the people perish.

Bang! Bang! Bang!
I couldn’t believe it. My dawg I grew up with , trying to take me out
over some young, fine biddy. Neither of us really knew who she was down
with.

Listen, let me
tell you why I couldn’t believe my Dawg was trying to take me out over
some biddy in the street. Our peoples lived next door to each other in
the hood, the Dancers. I guess God knew what He was doing when he gave
them that name because as long as I can remember, that’s all they seemed
to do.

Every night, there
seemed to be a party going on at the Dancers’ crib. My mom, Tori, must
have been related to them through a second or third uncle on granddad
Bogie’s side because mom could drop it like it was hot! Yes, she could
shake her poppa-stoppa! That’s what I called it because it seemed that
after every party, I would get a different poppa.

Yeah, It was wild
growing up. My dad was murdered when I was only four months old and mom
loved me so much, she had promised my dad right before he died that she
would make sure that I would never be without. No matter what it cost
her, even our souls.

My name is Rick V.
Leo. My Dawg’s name was Jamie Dancer. They called me Vee and my dawg
J.D. Man, we were close from day one.

We moved next door
to them in October 1974. I was ten, J.D. was twelve. We went to Crescent
Elementary. All our parents did was get high smoking that good sheeba
and drinking vodka.

Boy, I remember
when you could get a nickel bag and roll at least fifteen to twenty
joints. Man, those were the days. We would roll a nickel bag, take it to
school, sell ten joints keep five for ourselves and then get a dime bag
until we started coming up.

I’m talking coming
up for real! We would get our crew to go to all the schools and just
sell joints.

Our crew was made
up of five of the smoothest young bucks you could ever be down with. I
was the youngest. Breeze was the oldest. In the middle, there was J.D.,
Man and Dave. Dave was a straight comic. Just to look at him made us
laugh.

We all lived in
the same hood. We kicked it everyday. It was all about the bennies from
sun up to sun down, we got paid.

I remember one
day, we skipped school and stayed over Dave’s crib. His parents were
separated and he lived with his mom and three sisters. When his mom went
to work, that would be all she wrote.

We would have to
have Dave go to get one of our older homeboys to get us some brew. When
he would leave, me and the rest of the crew would get busy with his
sisters. They were older, sixteen, eighteen and nineteen. But they were
always down when it came to us getting that you know what. My favorite
was Teenie. She was the oldest.

We would go into
the bathroom. I would kick her fifty to a hundred to keep her happy
because I was a young buck, but paid. She would act like a little kitten
and I knew my little thing wasn’t fitting. When we would come out, she
acted like nothing happened, but I would be smiling like Ronald
McDonald.

My crew would make
fun of me saying I didn’t know what to do with it. But if they only knew
because she would also show me new things to do with that thang she
swang. Yep! Those were the days. I wish we would never have to grow up.

Chapter 2

Deeper And Deeper

Days turned into
months. Months turned into years. I remember the shock of my life. My
mom, Tori, got saved. Everything changed. Now, all I heard was Jesus
this and Jesus that. That’s all she talked about. I was about thirteen,
slinging large. I didn’t want to hear about no pie in the sky. I was
large and in charge, so I thought. I had guys twice my age working for
me. I had cars and houses, biddies on every corner. And you think I was
going to give that all up for some God I couldn’t even see? Yeah, right!
But mom wouldn’t stop telling me that there was a better way and his
name was Jesus. I was too much in the game by now. I couldn’t hear her
even if I wanted to. So, I left and went to one of my cribs in East
Liberty, where I also had been working at a clothes store, which was a
front to sell my drugs. As time went by, I got deeper and deeper in the
game.

Now I was sixteen.
It seemed like there was nothing new to do. I had money and everything
else a person could want, but something was missing, and I didn’t know
what it was. Right around this time, I had a dream that I was speaking
to multitudes of people from a platform. But when I woke up, I didn’t
pay any attention to the dream. I had also gotten involved with some
Italians who had turned me on to selling cocaine. One of them became
cool with me. His name was Nicky. Nicky told me, “Whatever you do, don’t
try any of it for yourself or you’ll be hooked.” I thought to myself,
“Not me! I‘ve been getting high all my life. Nothing can control me.”
Well, everything was fine for the first couple of years. Money got
larger than ever. I was so conceited, that I used to pass out band-aides
to my crew. I would tell them that I was so sharp, that they might start
bleeding.

What a big head!
But there was still that feeling of emptiness in me that I just couldn’t
shake. So, I gradually started getting high on my own supply. At the
same time, I started separating myself from the crew and would get alone
and get it in. But I wasn’t satisfied. There had to be more to life than
this. I was around twenty-three now. So I got married to some white girl
that I thought would change my life. I already had three children from
some other biddies in the street. But I thought marrying her would slow
me down. Yeah, right! I seemed to be digging my own pit, little by
little. Then crack came on the scene. My crew told me that it had
exploded in California, New York and Philly. Well, you know, I had to
have it. J.D. was getting worried that we hadn’t been spending any
quality time because we were closer to each other than me and my wife
Helen were. And the other dawgs in my crew started to worry as well. But
after the crack came on the scene, that’s all she wrote. I took the
plunge, down!

Chapter 3

Lost And Turned Out

Two weeks had gone
by and no one knew where I was at. I didn’t even know where I was. The
biddies that danced and did whatever I wanted had left. It was just me,
my pipe and a dead bic. I looked like a wreck gone bad. I left the hotel
that morning, got in my ride and headed back to the city. My answering
machine was full.

The crew had been
looking for me everywhere for two reasons. One was, my wife Helen was
pregnant and was so worried that she lost the baby. She just couldn’t
take it anymore. She left me. I couldn’t blame her because I was never
home. Second, some other crew was trying to take over our turf and set
up camp. So we were at war. When you blow up, everyone seems to know.

My crew had
already started to fall apart because I was losing control. I was going
through thousands of dollars a day on crack. I started really slipping.
One day, I was at a red light. Music was blasting, so I couldn’t hear
anything. I was alone. That was stupid, especially in a war between two
rival crews.

At that moment, my
life was dramatically changed forever. One of the dawgs from the other
crew came up to my car, put a forty-five to my head. I knew it was over.
But, believe it or not, all I could hear in my mind was my mothers’
voice saying, “There’s a better way and his name is Jesus.” All I could
do was pray within myself and I said, “Lord Jesus, if you’re real,
please save me and I will serve you for the rest of my life.”

Well, he took me
at my word because my crew came flying around the corner out of nowhere
and the dawg with the gun moved for a split second and I got ghost. I
went to my aunties’ crib. I ran upstairs to the third floor, fell on my
face and praised God like a fool.

Chapter 4

The Struggle

But the crew
didn’t believe a word I said. They thought that I absolutely lost my
mind. “He’s high,” J.D. and Breeze said. Dave started making jokes and
as serious as I was, I had to laugh because Dave is just stupid funny.
The only one of our crew who wasn’t there was Man. He had gotten hemmed
up in a humbug case and was in jail. But I was serious about serving the
Lord.

I told my crew I
was giving my share of our spoils to J.D. and it was on him to
distribute all the assets. Everything was going great for the first
eight months to a year, but eventually, I started reminiscing about the
good old days. At least I thought they were the good old days. My mom,
she was so happy that I was a Christian now. We started spending quality
time together and I loved to make her feel good.

But I still had
that old mentality, which caused me to start sneaking a drink here and
there. And eventually, that led me right back to the pipe. But now my
conscience was killing me. I felt miserable, up and down, in and out. I
was like a yo-yo. To make it so bad, my old crew kept trying to get me
to come back, but I would keep having that same dream of feeding the
multitudes. That and the grace of God and my mom’s prayers were the only
things that kept me going.

My mind kept
remembering my past. It was holding me in prison to my future until I
actually went on a binge and got arrested. But during that time in jail,
I was finally able to clean up again. That’s when I truly surrendered
all and started reading my Bible eight to ten hours daily. I started a
Bible study in our pod every night at seven p.m. Before I knew it, two
years had passed. It was time to hit the bricks again.

Chapter 5

Feeding The Multitudes

Home sweet home!
There’s nothing like it. No more oodles and noodles. Praise God!

The first thing on
my agenda was to re-acquaint myself with my children and let them know
that I was sorry for not being the father I should have been and I loved
them very much. And next was to start a ministry called Defeat The
Street, Inc.

No, it wasn’t pie
in the sky, this was for real. Through all the reading, studying and
praying, my mind was finally free. Yes, free to take me and all who
would come with me into the future. One day as I was out witnessing, I
met a young biddie who told me she remembered me from the past.

So, we talked
about how bad things had gotten in the hood and that my old crew had
broken up and how I had given my life to the Lord. It was starting to
get late. We were sitting in the park on a bench when I heard three
shots from a gun go off. It was J.D. He must have thought I was someone
else trying to take his biddie or something. But I screamed and shouted
out to him to chill and that it was me, Vee.

But he seemed to
be oblivious to me. So me and the young biddie ran and by God’s grace,
we got away. I took her to her crib, prayed with her and rolled. The
next morning, I went to find J.D. to see what that was all about. But I
was too late. Another crew took him out that night. I was heart broken.
I lifted up my eyes to heaven crying and promised God that I would do
everything in my power to bring about a change in the hood and to share
my story with all who would listen about how I defeated the streets.

Now I go to the
inner cities around America and tell my story. And yes, I feed the
multitudes with knowledge. My dream finally came true. And yours can
too.